


A New State

by Blackbird Song (Blackbird_Song)



Category: The Frisco Kid (1979)
Genre: California, First Time, Friendship/Love, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-18
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-09-09 11:20:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8888863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blackbird_Song/pseuds/Blackbird%20Song
Summary: As the California gold rush peters out, Tommy and Avram are stranded in a cabin with Avram's friends from his railroad days, Paco and Mr. Ping, after routing out a mob bent on driving out foreign prospectors.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RobberBaroness](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobberBaroness/gifts).



> Many thanks to my beta, who stayed up late into the night with me. I hope this fulfills your brief, Robber Baroness!

Well, here we are, stuck in the snow again, but at least this time we got walls and floors instead of horses and rocks to keep the wind out. And Avram's friend – Mr. Feng? Mr. Ping? Well, at least we saved him and Paco. Those two are sharing a bedroll across the room from us and they're wriggling around like worms about to get stuck on a hook. If they think the floor's bad, they should've been out there with us on that mountain pass tryin' to get some sleep! If they don't quit it soon, I'm gonna go ask 'em real nice to shut up.

'Ask 'em real nice'? Time was I woulda shot 'em! But Avram does that to a man. And I mean he does that to _every_ damn man he meets! Even that shmok Diggs got sidelined long enough so's everyone could throw him out of San Francisco! (I keep meanin' to ask Avram what 'shmok' means. It can't be too bad 'cause he's a rabbi...)

Avram's shivering like an aspen, so I gotta turn around and cuddle him up a bit more. I know he misses Rosalie and the twins, but come to think of it I've missed him. What with his rabbi duties and his family, he just ain't got much time for a former bank robber like me. It's funny when I think about that. I used to miss it but then Avram banished me the last time I robbed a bank. Banished me! Not just from his house, either, but from San Francisco! I wandered around for two weeks eatin' nothing but squirrels until I realized I missed him more than robbin' folks. Though come to think of it, I never liked robbing folks as much as banks. Not unless they were bad folks, that is. 

Maybe Avram'd let me rob from bad guys if I gave the proceeds to deserving people. Like Widow Buckbynder, for instance. She's the kindest, sweetest old lady and she's all alone in the world with no-one to take care of her. That's why the Benders make sure she gets a visitor every day. Come to think of it, she wouldn't go wanting, no matter what. That's what Avram's community is like. 

I never had that. Not till I met Avram. Soon as I could walk with a gun in my hand and my daddy taught me to shoot I was fending for myself. Everybody did where I came from. We didn't have a community like they do in San Francisco. Although San Francisco's got so big in the last few years, what with the gold rush and all, that it's starting to feel like a city. 

Avram's starting to talk in his sleep again. I don't hardly ever understand him cause he still don't speak English in his dreams and I don't speak Jewish. Except I can sort of say 'took-us' now. And 'shmok'. Avram tells me that he needs to work on his English, so that's what I speak.

When he told me what was going on up here, that people were driving out the foreign prospectors and his friends were in danger, it made me wonder what makes a state a state. California got it for the gold, but that's petering out. What'll hold it together after that? What happens if all these families get driven away? Mr. and Mrs. Bender came here because things were so bad in Europe they thought they were gonna get killed. I can't let anyone do that to them. Or to Avram. 

Sometimes I think I love him so much I could kiss him, only he wouldn't hold with that. Come to think of it, I don't know if I'd hold with it, even though wrestling half naked on the beach with him was the best fun I had in a long time until the Diggs gang shot me. 

Wasn't much of a surprise that the last of 'em was part of the mob we had to kill so we could save Mister... I really gotta remember that guy's name! I think it's Ping. And he and Paco are still goin' at it—wait a minute... Are they... Oh, hell! I ain't lookin' over there anytime soon! Maybe if I pull my coat over my ears... No, that ain't working. l'd give anything for a pillow!

"Tommy..."

Avram talks in his sleep a lot. Sometimes he used to moan Sarah Mindl's name, but that's before he realized that the girl he wanted was Rosalie. Mr. Bender don't talk much about Sarah Mindl without rollin' his eyes.

"Mmm... Tommy..."

Oh, shee-it! Avram's writhing in his sleep and it's makin' things happen that ain't right between a married man and his best friend! "Rosalie," I whisper in his ear. "You want Rosalie!"

That's when he turns around, awake as a fox in a henhouse. "No, I want you. Do you want me?" It's quieter than a whisper and after weeks of no relief, I'm harder than a rock.

"I thought you didn't—I mean, don't you have rules?"

"Yes. No penetration. Everything else is negotiable. Now do you want me?"

I don't know what's hitting me. "More 'n anything in the world right now!"

I ain't never kissed a man before, and the bearded lady didn't sit well with me, but Avram's mouth on mine makes me so hard I see stars. And his hands on me make me realize he might've done this before.

It's too cold to do more than undo our trousers and reach inside our long johns, but that's working real well. I just hope we ain't making as much of a ruckus as Paco and Mr. Ping, not that it would matter much.

"They've always been like that," Avram whispers against my mouth. "Now put your hand on me."

My hand on Avram's cock and his on mine excites me more 'n anything until he guides us together and joins our hands on both of us. It's like nothing I ever felt and before I know it, I'm spilling on him while he's groaning into my mouth and spilling on me.

I hang on tight to him as we soften because this is where the world might end. If I lose him—

"It's all right, Tommy," Avram says very quietly against my ear. "You're still my best friend. I still love you. Do you still love me?"

"Yes." That's when I realize I'm shaking. 

"Good." That's when I realize he's shaking, too.

I kiss him and he kisses me back. "What about Rosalie?"

"We'll talk about that in the morning, but she knows how I feel about you."

"Too bad you couldn't let me in on it!"

"I just did!"

That's when I notice that the bedroll on the other side of the room is now silent. "We'll talk about it in the morning."

From the bedroll on the other side of the room, I hear both Mr. Ping and Paco muttering, "Good!"

**Author's Note:**

> California became a state in 1850, thanks to the 1848-1855 gold rush. During its later years, as the gold started to dwindle, there was a serious move to drive out all foreign prospectors. This had knock-on effects on immigrants not directly involved in the gold rush or prospecting. San Francisco was founded in very large part by Jewish immigrants fleeing the violence of Europe. Here is a link for more background: <http://www.americanjerusalem.com/story-summary>
> 
> As you may have known or guessed, the word "shmok" is considered an East Yiddish root for our current term "schmuck". It is thought by many to come from the Old Polish word "smok", which would date it well before 1850, which is when the events of the film are meant to take place. Since "shmok" was definitely used in 1890 and "smok" is quite old, I'm taking the risk of thinking that Yiddish speakers in Poland might well have known and used "shmok."


End file.
